Archives for October 2022

I was at a friend’s house whilst they were setting up an Amazon Ring—a smart doorbell. Part of the process was picking a doorbell sound.

A debated ensued about what sound was best. Some of were traditional—a bit boring. Other’s were futuristic and ethereal—easy to miss. Some were loud and in-your-face—grating.

The lesson I took away, not just about doorbells, but for any alert—whether it be on our phones, laptops, post-its, or diaries—the sound itself doesn’t matter all that much.

What matters is being universally heard and recognised.

Set alerts accordingly.

I used to play touch rugby at a relatively competitive level back in New Zealand (if training 4-5 times per week is a proxy for competitiveness!). It’s a simplified, non-contact version of rugby that gets progressively faster and more strategic as you level up.

I recently found a group at work that competes in a corporate league, and I went along for my first game this week. I was surprised at few things.

Firstly, the muscle memory came back so quickly. I’m sure I looked uncoordinated after more than decade of not playing, but I definitely felt my brain click into gear much faster than I anticipated.

Secondly, I realised I was completely unprepared for the speed—touch rugby is based on sprinting and quick movements. This is in stark contrast to almost all of my exercise, which is typically strength training or steady-state cardio.

The juxtaposition of my brain knowing what to do, but my body being a few steps behind, felt odd! But it helped me realise the value of “functional” training that’s outside of our typical routine.

I don’t have hard data or evidence, but it feels logical that frequently stressing the body in new ways is important for longevity.

If you step in mud, do you walk straight into the house?

Probably not.

You likely wipe your shoes on a door mat, and take them off before you go inside.

Mud is obvious. It’s easy to see. And in the grand scheme of things, easy to clean.

But there’s other, less obvious, types of “mud” that we pick up throughout our day—often without even realising it.

It’s the impatience we let get to us in the supermarket line. It’s the snarky comment from someone in the subway. It’s the colleague who refuses to collaborate.

The people we share our homes with don’t need us dragging in the literal and figurative mud of the day.

In the same way we wipe and take off our shoes, is there something you do to stop the figurative mud from entering the house?

More ideas appear on a brisk walk than when staring at a blank screen.

Get out. Get moving. Get used to ideas coming when the subconscious mind has time to work.

When the project is only a plan on a page, we’re still in the harbour.

Rocking the boat is the only way we’ll know if we can handle more than calm waters.

I was flying out of France’s Nice airport earlier this evening. As the Uber pulled into the passenger drop-off lane, there was a big sign saying “Kiss and Fly”.

La bise is an exchange of kisses on the cheek, and is a traditional greeting in France.

It made me smile. It’s an endearing example of taking one’s culture and making it an unexpected, but delightful, part of another experience.

A friend of mine, who lives multiple hours from the nearest coast, has a rule for whenever she’s by the sea.

Go swimming every day. Rain or shine. Hot or cold. Whether you feel like it or not. Almost always, you’ll be glad to have done it.

I call it the salt water rule, and I try to follow it.

I’ve previously shared ‘[The Tail End]’ by Tim Urban, in which one of his points is we have fewer experiences left—such as swimming in the ocean—than we think.

The salt water rule is a simple way to get rid of inertia, and get more out of life. Especially when you apply the principle to more than just swimming in the sea!

Maru worked in architecture for 5 years and taught me to look differently at a city’s skyline.

She taught me to look out for cranes.

The cranes are a proxy for construction and infrastructure investment. Since both are closely and positively correlated with a growing economy, seeing many cranes along the skyline is a simple but reliable heuristic to know if an economy is doing well or poorly.

In your field of work, what are your cranes on the horizon?

It’s far easier to consume than it is to produce.

Take learning a language for example. There are two types of consumption: listening and reading. And there are two types of production: speaking and writing.

To feel confident in a new tongue, a learner often has to right an imbalance: shifting from listening to speaking, and from reading to writing.

This transition is hard.

When consuming, getting “the gist of it” is passable, but producing requires a higher level of precision and quality.

But the recipe for progress seems the same regardless of whether we’re learning a language, an instrument, an equation, an exercise, a habit, or a dance… consistent, patient, intentional practice over a prolonged period of time.

If it’s worth turning up for it, it’s worth doing the prep for it.

I’m going to like a grouch, but I see too many meetings where the pre-work hasn’t been done. People dial in to the call, but figure things out as they go.

Spending 5-10 minutes beforehand mapping out goals for the session, decisions that need to be made, and questions that need to be answered, increases the effectiveness of a meeting by orders of magnitude.

Imagine never experiencing another aimless meeting.

It’s another example of how doing the basics well, and consistently, can have outsized returns in the long run.

The to-do list will never end.

There’ll always be something else that needs striking, or adding, or amending, or re-prioritising.

And yet when we embrace that, we free ourselves to focus only on the most important stuff.

The other things either won’t get done, or it simply weren’t important enough in the first place.

It’s really nice to have options.

Options are comforting. They give us the chance to change plans if things don’t work out. They allow us to believe we can reverse mistakes by taking an alternate path.

But sometimes, the magic only appears when you shun optionality and commit.

Investing in a relationship. Picking a career. Starting a business.

And if all that feels a bit too abstract, here’s a travel example I like to think about: would you prefer to spend one day in one hundred different cities, or spend one hundred days getting to know one city well?

BeReal is a new social media app. It’s unique selling point is it uses constraints to make the experience more authentic and less curated than other apps.

Here’s how it works. At a random point during the day, BeReal send users a notification to take a photo of what they’re doing in that moment. Users snap a picture using both front and back cameras. The app does not allow users to filter or edit images, photos are deleted within 24 hours, and users are only allowed to see photos posted by friends once they’ve posted their own.

The point is in the name: BeReal.

There’s growing hype but also speculation around the product. There are concerns about its longevity and potential, and also a reluctance from people to download yet another social media app. But BeReal is making waves that are becoming harder to ignore. For example, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion when it had 30m daily active users. BeReal currently has 50m daily active users. They’ve some serious traction!

As someone who didn’t think much of TikTok in it’s early days, I’m not about to make the same mistake.

I’ll be keeping a close eye on how its product and growth develops.

Here’s one way to increase your probability of success: surround yourself with people who can ask great questions.

They’ll see problems you can’t.

They’ll help you avoid mistakes.

They’ll teach you patience while you wait for an answer.

A few of you sent me messages in reply to my post ‘Helmet habits’ in which I made some rather sweeping statements about how I find it crazy that many people in the UK don’t wear helmets while cycling.

Russell shared a great article with me that helped me remember everything is drenched in nuance.

“Most of the risk of severe injury while cycling is not intrinsic to the activity. Cycling is a benign activity that often takes place in dangerous environments.”

Sure “helmets reduce the risk of head injury by 60%” but on the flip side “it seems the perception of reduced risk when a helmet is worn can both prompt riders to be more reckless with their own safety and nudge drivers into being less careful towards cyclists”.

And although “a helmet might make you safer if you get knocked off… it might also, even marginally, increase the chance that this happens in the first place.”

Finally, with respect to my home country, New Zealand, one research paper estimated “the number of overall bike trips fell 51% between 1989–90 and 2003–6” when compulsory helmets were introduced in 1994. This begs the question about consequences on the health system of fewer people participating in exercise.

It’s easy to over simplify; to make things simplistic.

Everything is drenched in nuance.